This concert, to put it simply was going to kick serious ass. There was no way it couldn't. You've got In Flames headlining, and people in Cleveland fucking love them...last time they were here opening for Earth Crisis, the place was packed for In Flames, and less than half full when EC came on. Then you've got Nevermore, fucking modern-day classic metal gods if there ever was one. So we made sure we got there early to get one of the very few good seats for this show....which ended up being in the bar area left of the pit area, about 30 feet from stage.

The first band up was Burn It Down...they opened the last time In Flames was here, and they sucked even worse this time. They sound somewhat like The Deftones, but less original, more generic, and a bit heavier. I gotta give 'em respect cause they were definitely putting all they had into it, but it just wasn't there...it was nothing original, its all been done before. As it turns out, about a week after this concert, they broke up. I'm sure there weren't too many tears shed about that loss of 'talent'.

The Next band was Shadows Fall, who I had heard of, but had no idea what they sounded like or anything up until this show. And I was fucking impressed beyond belief. They have a really heavy, hardcore, dark sound to them, and the lead singer's voice was damn good....one of the best people I've seen at straight growling, and his ability to go from really low growling to high-pitched screeching/growling was just plain badass. If it wasn't for the next two bands coming up, I definitely would have liked to have listened to them longer, but I guess I'll have to live with just buying their cd when I find it.

Nevermore. What can I say about them. If you're a real metal fan, as opposed to new metal (not that there's anything wrong with it), and you've never heard Nevermore, you're fucking missing out on the best progressive metal band around. They're one of the best musicians technically that I've ever heard, and Warrel Dane's voice is fucking heavenly, even though some people say it's too high-pitched and slightly annoying, I love it. And ever since I first started listening to them about two years ago I've been looking forward to this day...to see if they're really as good as they sound on their cd's, and I wasn't let down. And not only that, but Warrel is the fucking man, the way he interacted with the crowd like he knew all of them, he was even mentioning people from the message board on their site to see if they were at the show. They ended up playing a good mix of their songs, 4 or 5 songs from their new cd, Dead Heart In A Dead World, 4 or 5 from Dreaming Neon Black (which is in my top ten albums of the 90's), and maybe 2 from their other older albums. I only wish they would have gotten to play longer, but Warrel said they were gonna be back in a couple months headlining their own tour so I guess I'll just have to wait.

The first time I saw In Flames, the only bad thing about their show was how short it was, or at least how short it seemed...it was about 45 minutes in an opening slot, which is good, but you felt like you were missing something by not being able to see a full set from them. So I definitely had high expectations for this show. And it lived up to those expectations and then some. They played all of the songs I was hoping for....Bullet Ride, Episode 666, Colony, Clayman, Embody The Invisible, Only For The Weak (good lord I get chills whenever I hear that song), Moonshield, etc. Plus a couple others they didn't get to play last time cause of the short set like Ordinary Story and Pinball Map. Speaking of Ordinary Story, in the middle of that song, Jim, the bassist from Nevermore, comes up to me and tells me he's gonna buy me a beer cause I'm wearing a Nevermore shirt, so we head over to the bar where I proceeded to kiss his ass while drinking a beer with him. Although it wasn't really kissing ass since they really were that damn good. And even though this was Jim Sheppard of Nevermore, I headed back to the show cause I didn't want to miss anymore of the greatest band in the world at that moment. By then I had lost my spot, so I went down and squeezed my way into the pit and fucking lost it....this was one of the pits I absolutely love, not too violent, no assholes in it, it was just plain fun letting out your aggression with other people who're there to do the same thing....without purposely trying to hurt the other people, which is what moshing should be abuout in the first place. But the show was almost over so I was only in there for about 2 songs...next time I'm heading in there right away, cause there's nothing more amazing then just letting the music take control of you. Once again, it seemed like they didn't play very long, but they did go for about an hour, but that's what happens when you're having fun. I'm definitely going to have to give this concert a 10.